“One of the very famous and old libraries in Mumbai, Asiatic library at town Hall is very famous to recognize via its beautiful entrance picture is getting Digitized with about 10,000 to 15,000 books. Lets know more about one of oldest library of Mumbai, the new conservation laboratory and many other inside information which has rare and valuable collections since centuries..”
Books Conservation Laboratory
A new project inside this magnificent library was undergoing since last about more then a year now. Lately as revealed by the ‘Rotary Club Of Bombay’ who is funding the project of old significant books conservation for longer life via its new project called ‘New Conservation Laboratory’, The association with Asiatic Library was a very important move by its team committee working towards Urban Heritage Renewals. Of course, One of the most sorted libraries in Mumbai
Possibly on Tuesday 20th September 2016, this new 700 square feet large section of this conservation laboratory inside library building will be inaugurated that will have enough resources which will start working on every page of the heritage and old books of about more then a century old which will be chemically processed with some Japanese technology in place to preserve the important information about Mumbai and many historic places around.
Library Digitization and Online
Mumbai gem of valuable and rare collections of books like German translation of Rigveda, A Voyage towards the south pole and round the world, Two chief world systems, History of the world and many more which are saves since ages now are planned to be digitized by Asiatic library committee. All the knowledge, precious lines, pictures etc. will be digitized and will be saved online at their official website which can be accessed securely saving the space of about 10,000 books in library. Not just that their are about 2500 manuscripts, journals and more then 1000 maps which will be converted and uploaded online for easy access and read by members and research teams as and when required from anywhere around the world.
Microfilming books individual pages and book digitization has already started. Team is also working on building easy to read website, securing content from unwanted downloads and theft via the existing / possibly a completely new portal. Digitizing via online media, microfilming, DVD records at their dedicated laboratory makes life easy and content secure and ever lasting. This multi crore digitization project of Asiatic society library of Mumbai (Town Hall) will break the time barrier once ready. Many people are unaware of this transformation and should be updated, So share this information with this pro-readers, history lovers, journalists and others as sharing will bring more reading and more better to us.
About Town Hall Library
Asiatic Society Of Bombay Library started in 1804 by Sir James Mackintosh along with the start up of Literary society of Bombay in those days. Its one of the paid membership libraries in Mumbai with about 25,000 to 30,000 rare collections of books that can be referred by paying Annual membership fees of Rs. 1000 to 1500. You can opt to be a life time member of this society library by paying Rs.10,000 to 15,000 with a refundable security deposit of Rs.500/- only. Members are allowed to borrow total of fifteen books and three magazines.
This library has a dust free air conditioned laboratory to store books which was built in 1991 whose purpose is to conserve old books and so now it is one of the famous rare collection old books library of Mumbai.
Published Journal Names
Their are lots of changes in name of its journals published from time to time. Initially started with name “Transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay” which changed to “Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society” during the period of 1841, then gain they changed the publishing title as “Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bombay” which went for long and recently, since the name of city changed to Mumbai (Formerly ‘Bombay’) the journal name was changed again and till date it is now “Journal of the Asiatic Society of Mumbai” which was previously “Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bombay” and this is how the final journal name and title was fixed and used till date.
What Asiatic Society Do ?
The 3 major focused activities at this town hall library (Where the Asiatic is located and is a heritage structure now) is ‘Public Forum’, ‘Holding’ and ‘Research’. Although the society is in huge loss due to fall in membership which is due to the online availability of Information, they are trying to recover the loss via various schemes like ‘Adopt a book’ were city people helps to fund to maintain the rare collections of old books.
Address and How To Reach
Contact Number : +91-22-22660956
Timing : 10:30 Am to 6:30 Pm
You might also like to know about Digital library at Andheri East.
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Can I get a record of the following articles if published as Book Reviews?
Missions: Cross-Cultural Encounter and Change in Western India, M.D. David, ISPCK, Delhi,2001.Vol …?Issue ? Date?
Baçaim to Vasai, Teresa Albuquerque, Ist ed., Wenden Offset Private Limited, Mumbai,2006, Vol? Issue ? Date?